Two petitions and socialist MPs defend breast cancer cure on social media

The call for the National Health Service (SNS) to provide an innovative breast cancer drug has already sparked two petitions and has led a Socialist Party parliamentary group to question the government.

This is pembrolizumab, and the petitions are seeking to reconsider the decision not to include it in the Early Access Program (PAP) for patients with triple-negative breast cancer.

Both were addressed to the National Administration for Medicines and Health Products (Infarmed), a petition organized by medical professionals, now closed, has received about 30,000 signatures (29,875), while a petition initiated by patient Sandra Gomes has already received 19,286 signatures. you can still sign.

The Socialist Party parliamentary group, in turn, asked the government “what is the time horizon” for a drug “with proven efficacy” to be “provided and reimbursed to users with triple negative breast cancer”, as well as the measures to be taken. accept “immediately so that all users in this situation can access reimbursement for this therapy.”

The letter of the deputies to the Chairman of the Assembly of the Republic, last Friday, was addressed to the Ministry of Health.

A group of medical professionals declare their support in the petition for “Vera Lucía Domingos de Almeida, a pediatrician at the hospital of Espiritu Santo de Evora, who was diagnosed in September 2022 with locally advanced triple negative breast cancer”, given that “with subtype of breast cancer with the worst prognosis in terms of recurrence and expected survival, new therapeutic options that demonstrate efficacy and guarantee safety for these patients are a growing need.”

“Therefore, we are challenging the decision of 21.07.2022 regarding the pembrolizumab early access program,” he adds.

“It is unacceptable, neither ethically nor morally, that many women who are currently fighting for their lives and unfairly they are completely unaware. Equally unacceptable is the justification for refusing PAP. There is no therapeutic alternative equivalent to this drug in terms of prognosis.”

Sandra Gomez, 40, was diagnosed with locally advanced metastatic triple-negative breast cancer in 2016, which she was treating, and was diagnosed with ganglionic recurrence in November 2022.

In the petition, the patient indicates that the request for the prescription of pembrolizumab, made by the attending physician on January 5 and authorized by the Director of the Medical Oncology Service of the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte on the same day, was sent to the Pharmacy and Therapeutic Commission, which submitted the request to Infarmed on January 9, which was rejected April 17th.

In response to a question from Lusa, Infarmed clarified that the drug’s access to PAP received a negative opinion from its Medical Technology Assessment Board, which includes clinical experts with recognized knowledge and experience in treating patients in SNS hospitals. because he believes there are therapeutic alternatives for these patients.

However, he adds that based on “new data”, the National Medicines Administration “has begun reviewing eligibility for PAP for this therapeutic indication.”

Marketing authorization for innovative medicines is usually granted by the European Commission after receiving an opinion from the European Medicines Agency.

After this phase, in order to be used and funded by the SNS, medicines must demonstrate therapeutic and cost advantages over national clinical practice to ensure that all citizens have access to both innovative treatments and other needed care.